Yes, there are Cardamine species that have a sort of tuber that easily qualifies them for geophyte status. Not all (perennial) plants that die back to some type of rootstock are geophytes in the botanical or horticultural sense. Papyrus also has a rhizome as do many other grasses but this does not automatically make them geophytes, even if they are deciduous. The underground storage organs of geophytes are more typically a response to a dry pronounced season rather than cold. I still like Charles Gorenstein's off-hand definition of a geophyte or "bulb" in the broad sense: any plant that has a dormant structure that stands up perfectly well to being tossed in a paper bag and mailed across the country. Dylan On 7 April 2013 17:17, Jim McKenney <jamesamckenney@verizon.net> wrote: > I took Ellen's subject line as a good humored attempt to steer us back to > a somewhat bulbous topic. > > But I'll join in the fun: aren't there species of Cardamine which are > "bulbous" in the sense of having spheroid underground storage organs? Isn't > there a Cardamine bulbosa? Wasn't one of the toothworts once called > Cardamine bulbifera? > > Jim McKenney > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > -- *L’aubepine en fleurs fut mon premier alphabet.* [The flowering hawthorn was my first alphabet.] — Rene Char